Édouard Lucas was a French mathematician born on April 4, 1842, in Paris. He is best known for his work in number theory and combinatorics. Lucas made significant contributions to the study of prime numbers and is famous for the Lucas sequence, a series of numbers similar to the Fibonacci sequence. In addition to his mathematical research, Lucas developed the Lucas-Lehmer test, a method for determining the primality of Mersenne numbers. He also contributed to the field of recreational mathematics, particularly through his work on puzzles and games. Lucas passed away on July 3, 1891.